HogNado Deck

This deck’s bread and butter combination is sending the hog rider to attack the enemy crown tower, and when your opponent sends out troops to kill your hog rider, you place your tornado to pull the defending troops away from your hog rider. This allows your hog rider to have a free tip to your enemy tower and do some easy damage. You can then use your log card to damage all the troops that got pulled by the tornado if you please.

BASICS: AVERAGE ELIXIR AND HOW TO USE EACH TROOP EFFICIENTLY

The average elixir cost for this deck is 3.0 elixir and the following cards used are:

TROOPS: USED FOR DEFENSE AND OFFENSE. IMPORTANT TO USE THE RIGHT COUNTER FOR EACH TROOP

Executioner- The executioner is a great card against most low health troops. You can think of it as a ranged valkyrie. This is because he can throw a spinning axe to damage both air troops and ground troops twice, one on the way there and one on the returning trip. I prefer the executioner over the wizard because it is more tanky. Where the wizard would get killed from a high level fireball, the executioner would only be slightly damaged by it. Additionally, all swarm troops will die in one throw and the executioner can also take care of the barbarians extremely easy. The executioner would be your main defense because it is so good at it. If you do the knight and executioner combo on defense, you will get through most of the common types of pushes. Because you have the tornado in your deck, you can also use the tornado to group all the enemy’s troops together and place down your executioner to destroy them all with massive amounts of slash damage. This is an extremely good synergy that your deck has that most other decks do not have. The best troops the executioner counters are the spear goblins, the goblins, the goblin horde, the skeletons, the minions, the minion horde, the skeleton army, and the barbarians. The cards that counter the executioner fairly well are the miner, the knight, the mini pekka, the pekka, and the elite barbarians.

Ice Spirits- The ice spirits can be a great card to use in conjunction with the hog. The ice spirits can be compared to the zap spell because both of those cards stun enemy buildings or troops. However, unlike the zap spell, the fire spirit does not cost two elixir. Instead, it is half as expensive and only costs you one elixir to use. In addition to that bonus, the fire spirit’s stun ability lasts twice as long as the zap spell. Because of these two stats on the ice spirit, the ice spirit is worth about four times as much as the zap spell is per elixir. However, there is one downside to using the ice spirit over the zap spell. The ice spirit, unlike the zap spell, can easily be countered. The ice spirit can be countered by almost anything from direct damage spells like the zap spell, the arrows, the fire ball, and the rocket. The ice spirit is also very fragile against any splash damaging troops because even if they target your own hog rider, the splash damage effect can still kill your ice spirit since the ice spirit has such a low health point stat. Some splash damage troops that can kill your ice spirit is the wizard, the baby dragon, the ice wizard, the princess, the bomber, the witch, and the Valkyrie. Because of this, using the ice spirit is a risk reward type troop. If the ice spirit does get its stuff off before it dies, it is well worth it and you have a four times effectiveness when compared to the zap spell. However, if it dies it has a zero effectiveness when compared to the zap spell. If you find that your opponents are countering your ice spirit more times than not, you make want to switch to the zap spell. Switching to the zap spell will guarantee that you will get a stun on each of your pushes every single time. The zap spell will also get you a little more damage that is also reliable.

Ice Wizard- The ice wizard will help you a lot in this deck. It is great at defense against the hog because if you have the minions and ice wizard defending, good placement of both troops will make it impossible for your enemy to get a shot off the tower. The ice wizard’s slowing stat also allows him to counter high damage per second troops by slowing their fire rate. Another example of the ice wizard working his magic is against the royal giant. With only the minions defending against the royal giant, a moderate amount of damage will be done to your tower. If you add the ice wizard onto your defense, the royal giant will get a lot less damage off during his life time.. The ice wizard is also very good on offense as it can help slow defending units or the crown tower. The combination of the ice wizard and musketeer can work extremely well if left uncontested because the ice wizard has a moderate amount of health and does splash damage while slowing the tower down a lot. This makes him act as a very good support troop for the musketeer that causes all the damage. The ice wizard is probably your best card in supporting offensive pushes and supporting your musketeer during a defense.

Hog Rider– This is the heart and soul of the deck. The hog rider is part of your trifecta push that includes the hog rider, the wizard, and the giant. This will be the troop that will do the most damage to the Tower and it will also be your main offensive unit. Because of the Hog Rider’s decent health stats and its great damage per shot, it is a great unit to attack with. Additionally, it only targets defensive buildings which make it that much easier to control. There are some standard moves in playing the Hog efficiently. The moves that till be gone over in this article is the Elixir pump rush and pig pushing. If you are above or at arena 6, there is no doubt that you see a lot of Elixir Collectors about. Normal players want to protect their Elixir collector and put it in the back of their map. If it starts in their starting hand, that is going to be played first 90% of the time. If they do place it in the back, take advantage of the five elixir they just used. Try to make a Hog push in the combos of Hog and Spear Goblins, Hog and Minions, or Hog and Barbarians. If you don’t have the Hog in your starting hand, make a small push maybe of just Spear Goblins and see how they react. This move has given me so many wins since I found out that this worked. The Tower will fall if nothing happens to that push. Usually, they send in a panic Fireball and you still get about half their Tower. The second strategy is called pig pushing. It can be hard to master for some so it is recommended to practice with your friends. The basic concept of this is to nudge the Hog a little bit to the outside by spawning troops right next to the hog. The picture to the left shows how to pig push pretty well. It also shows the counter to the pig push in case you run into anyone also using this tactic. The counter to this is pretty ineffective since the movements happen so fast. There is barely any time to react to this strategy. If you do pig push, make sure your are on the side where the defense is further away from your chosen spawn location. Failure to recognize which side is the one to do it on can result in an ineffective and useless push.

Dart Goblin- The dart goblin card is like the spear goblins but only one of them and it is stronger. For being one of the the three dart goblins, it is surprising how well they perform. The dart Goblins not only can defend against goblins, enemy Spear Goblins, and Minions in a one verse one with the help of your Tower, but it can also be used at the very beginning. If the dart Goblins is used right at the start, you force your opponent to either react to them by placing a much more expensive troop, leaving an option to have a hard counter ready, or make them just watch the dart Goblin chip 200 damage off their tower. 200 may not seem like a whole bunch, but do that 2 or three times in a match, and you got yourself 500 free chip damage. The dart Goblins can also kill a Princess that is on the bridge very quickly as long as the princess is distracted. If the princess is not distracted and you deploy the spear goblins, they will die before they can kill the princess, making you basically waste three elixir. On a very good note however, you can do an advanced move with these spear goblins. The dart goblins are extremely vulnerable to most damage units like the musketeer, the Valkyrie, the prince, the bowler, the fire spirits, and the miner. The spear goblins are also very vulnerable to any direct damage spells such as the fire ball, the arrows, and the lightning spell.

Minions– This deck uses the Minions instead of the Minion Horde. The Minions are preferred in this deck over the Minion Horde because you want to keep the cost of troops low. By keeping the cost low, you will be able to cycle through your cards faster. The Minions also do well enough against air troops like the Balloon or Baby Dragon, although for the Baby Dragon needs to target your Crown Tower first. Minions also can take out the Barbarians with the help of the Spear Goblins. This leaves you with a major counter push at the ready. Also, these blue little monsters can help destroy Prince rushes with the help of some ground troops. Even if your enemy uses Arrows, you are not at a Elixir disadvantage, unlike the Minion Horde. The Minions could also kill a Sparky before it can take its aim at the Tower. The minions are very vulnerable to anything that attacks air troops like the baby dragon, the witch, the spear goblins, the musketeer, the fire spirits and the wizard. They are also weak to the ice spirits because they can be stunned long enough so the enemy tower can finish them off. The minions are also one of your only air targeting units so you should be careful and know when the right time to use them is. If you are seen having to defend against a lava hound or balloon without your minions or spear goblins, you will have a pretty hard time defending. Because of this, if you see your opponent has one or two of these cards, you should save your minions or spear goblins just to counter the enemies air troops. The minions are also weak to direct damage spells like the zap spell and the arrows. Both of these direct damage spells will give your opponent an equal or an advantageous elixir trade. It is strong against group troops that have a medium or low amount of health. The are strong against the mini pekka, the musketeer, the barbarians, the pekka, and the princes.

SPELLS: THEIR MAIN USES AND HOW TO MAXIMIZE THEIR POTENTIAL

Log– The log is here because it can be combines with the tornado and Valkyrie extremely well. The combined area of effect damage from these cards will let you wipe out big pushes. The reason why your log is here and not your arrows or your fire ball is for a few reasons. The log does quite a bit more damage when compared to your arrows. In exchange for this damage, though, you cannot target enemy air troops with the log card. In this deck,I think the log is a better choice than the arrows because you already have the furnace and the zap spell. Both of those cards combined should let you kill any swarm air troops like the minion horde or the regular three elixir minions. Also, the log is better than the fire ball in this deck because it is cheaper than the fire ball. The once elixir difference can be the difference in having enough elixir to defend an enemy counter push and to have one of your crown or arena towers completely wiped out. The log also can hit your enemy towers which can help you finish them off if they have low health. Also, just like the fire ball, the log can help support your hog rider in your main push. If you put the log right behind your hog rider, you will be able to use the log to push away and damage any defending barbarians. This push back is similar to the knock back the fire ball does to any defending enemy barbarians. The log will also sort of clear the way for your hog rider to get to the enemy arena or crown tower very easily. The log can also be used fairly well for defensive purposes. If the enemy is bring a strong push to your arena or crown tower, you can send in your log to not only damage the oncoming troops, but to also push them back and away from your arena or crown tower. This push back can help you stall for another second which can really change the tide of the battle. With that one second stall your log provides you, you may be able to reduce the damage done to your tower by hundreds of hit points. I think for three elixir, the log is a pretty good card that can help you in some situations. I see the log more of a utility card than a damage card but it still can easily counter hut spam decks. The log card is great in some decks while lacking in others. The trick is to find the deck that works well with the log and you can have the element of surprise held against your enemy.

Tornado– The tornado card is a very interesting card. Paired with any type of slash damage, you can take on huge pushes with minimal elixir in comparison. One combo you can do from this deck is the tornado log combo. The tornado brings all the enemy’s troops together and the log hits all of them at once putting great value on your log. The other combo from this deck is the tornado and the Valkyrie combo. Like before, you place your tornado to group all the enemy’s troops in one area. You then drop your executioner so he can attack all the enemy’s troops at once do deal a lot of damage. The tornado is also a great counter to hog rider decks. This may take some practice, but one you get it down this trick is very strong. When the enemy payer places down their hog rider, you place your tornado in a way where their hog rider is brought to the center. Once the tornado dies down, the hog rider targets your king tower, not one of the two side crown towers. The hog rider has just enough health to hit your kings dower once which activates his big cannon. This cannon will help you with more defense. This gives you free stats for basically no cost which may be the difference from winning the match and losing the match. Because of this, the tornado deserves to be in your deck. The tornado works extremely well against the hog rider, the spear goblins, the goblins, the goblin horde, the skeletons, the minions, the minion horde, the skeleton army, and the barbarians. The tornado does not work well against tanky troops like the golem, the pekka, the lava hound, and the giant.

About The Author

I am a Clash Royale player since the end of January during the soft launch. To this day, I remain a free to play player with a knowledgeable outlook on many different types of strategies. At level 8 I reached the peak of 3424, at level 9 I reached 3647, and now I'm sitting well over 4000 trophies. I love sharing strategies, decks, and other useful information by writing blog posts for you guys.